A Pitching Duel for the Modern Ages

Cliff Lee threw 10 innings for the first time in his career, and didn’t get the decision.

Cliff Lee and Matt Cain turned back the clock on Wednesday night, sort of. Each starting pitcher managed to go at least nine innings without giving up a run, and Lee even went 10 innings, in the Giants’ 1-0 win over Philadelphia.

Such pitching duels have become exceedingly rare as scoring rates have increased and pitch limits have become trendy. In 1959, when Harvey Haddix famously pitched 12 perfect innings for the Pirates and then lost, there were three games in which the starter for the losing team, unlike Haddix, pitched at least nine innings without yielding a run. There were 44 more games like that in the 1960s, or 4.4 per season. There have been just 13 such games in the last 13 seasons, even though there are many more games played each season. So a pitching duel such as Cain’s and Lee’s has become rare, a thing to savor. And it takes very rare circumstances to achieve it. Lee and Cain were remarkably efficient in getting to 27 outs, and beyond. Cain threw just 91 pitches, and Lee threw 102. Had they needed more pitches, one or both might have been lifted sooner.

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